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Sale of residential spaces has increased by over 50 per cent in area terms to 26.41 million sq ft, valued at Rs 16,916 crore, backed by improved demand, a recent survey revealed.

According to the study conducted by Icra, sale of residential spaces stood at 17.6 million sq ft in the corresponding period a year ago.

Correspondingly, the sales value of the area booked also improved to Rs 16,916 crore in FY2018 compared to Rs 12,523 crore a year ago, registering a growth of 35.1 per cent for the period under consideration.

The report further revealed that quarter-to-sell (QTS), which reflects the number of quarters required to sell the available inventory as well as a denominator of the real estate sector's recovering operational health, has improved.

In FY2018, the QTS has improved to 10 quarters at the end of March 2018, from 14 quarters as of the end of March 2017, reflecting an improvement in sales velocity.

"Improving demand sentiment as well as preference for an established brand with a proven track record of delivery is resulting in customers gravitating towards bigger players," Icra assistant vice president Manav Mahajan said.

He further said notable pick-up in demand coupled with steady new launches has resulted in an improvement of QTS.

"In the post-RERA era, we expect the organised players to gain market share. Further, new sales outstripped new launches for the first time over the last four years ending FY2018," Mahajan added.

The minor aberration in contrast to the improvement in area and value of the new sales achieved in FY2018, were the collections from customers which moderately declined by 3.6 per cent to Rs 13,020 crore, compared to Rs 13,505 crore a year ago, it said.

"This can partly be attributed to muted demand during the initial phase of RERA implementation. Also, developers have been pushing sales through various marketing schemes like possession-linked plans, subvention, among others," Icra said.

Going forward, with the projects nearing completion, collections are expected to register an improvement.

Further, to draw on the benefit of the pending collections, Icra believes the developers will continue their focus on execution.

Around 29.2 million sq ft of area was completed in FY2018 and it is expected that the deliveries will remain steady.

"With the improving sales and declining QTS, the new launches are expected to rise going forward. In FY2017, around 20.4 million sq ft of area was launched. This has marginally improved to 21.3 million sq ft in FY2018," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)